Michael Bay Retracts Apology for 'Armageddon'

April 24, 2013 (3:53 am) GMT

The 'Pain and Gain' director claims that he was misquoted by Miami Herald, who reported on April 20 that he apologized for the quality of the Ben Affleck-starring film.

Michael Bay has cleared up a recent issue that was first covered by Miami Herald on April 20. The site reported that the 48-year-old filmmaker felt sorry for his film "Armageddon", which was released in 1998. Bay claimed that he was misquoted and felt the urgency to release a statement on his website.

"One press writer has gone too far in reporting false information. He has printed the bare minimum of my statement which in effect have twisted my words and meaning," Bay wrote. "I'm not in the slightest going to apologize for the third movie in my movie career, a film called 'Armageddon'."

The "Transformers" director revealed that he was actually a bit disappointed that he could not have "a few more weeks in the edit room on 'Armageddon'." Even so, he is still "proud" of the film as the 1998 blockbuster hit, which starred Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler, is "one of most shown movies on cable TV."

In an interview with Miami Herald during the promotion of "Pain and Gain" in Miami, Bay allegedly apologized "for 'Armageddon', because [he] had to do the whole movie in 16 weeks." He also reportedly admitted that "it was terrible" and wished "to redo the entire third act if [he] could." Immediately spreading like wildfire, the report shocked fans and critics.

Rene Rodriguez, the journalist who wrote the report, denied that he misquoted Bay. On Twitter, he wrote, "Michael Bay says I quoted him out of context about apologizing for 'Armageddon.' NBC asked me for a response, and I played them the tape."